Examining the Effect of Interruptions at Different Breakpoints and Frequencies Within a Task

Objective The purpose was to explore how event segmentation theory (EST) can be used to determine optimal moments for an interruption relying on hierarchical task analysis (HTA) to identify coarse and fine event boundaries. Background Research on the effects of interruptions shows that they can be either disruptive or beneficial, depending on which aspects of an interruption are manipulated. Two important aspects that contribute to these conflicting results concern when and how often interruptions occur. Method Undergraduates completed a trip planning task divided into three subtasks. The within-subjects factor was interruption timing with three levels: none, coarse breakpoints, and fine breakpoints. The between-subjects factor was interruption frequency with two levels: one and three. The dependent measures included resumption lag, number of errors, mental workload, and frustration. Results Participants took longer to resume the primary task and reported higher mental workload when interruptions occurred at fine breakpoints. The effect of interruptions at coarse breakpoints was similar to completing the task without interruption. Interruption frequency had no effect on performance; however, participants spent significantly longer attending to interruptions in the initial task, and within a task, the first and second interruptions were attended to significantly longer than the third interruption. Conclusion The disruptiveness of an interruption is tied to the point within the task hierarchy where it occurs. Application The performance cost associated with interruptions must be considered within the task structure. Interruptions occurring at coarse breakpoints may not be disruptive or have a negative effect on mental workload.

Changes in the experience of time: The impact of spatial information on the perception and memory of duration

Although it is understood that our experience of time is fluid and subjective, the cognitive mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are not well described. Based on event segmentation theory, we tested the hypothesis that changes in the context, particularly the spatial context, of an experience impact how an individual perceives (encodes) and remembers the length of that event. A group of participants viewed short videos of scenes from movies that either contained shifts in spatial context (e.g., characters moving through doorways) or did not contain any shifts in spatial context. In one task, participants estimated a randomly selected time duration (between 10 and 23 s) when encoding these videos. In a second task, the same participants estimated the duration of the videos after viewing them. We found that even though the presence of spatial shifts impacted how time was perceived, the nature of this effect differed as a function of task. Specifically, when time was estimated at encoding, these estimates were longer for videos that did not contain spatial shifts compared with those with spatial shifts. However, when these estimates were made at retrieval, durations were reported as longer for videos with spatial context shifts than those without. A second experiment replicated these main findings in a new sample. We interpret these results as providing new evidence for theories on how context changes, particularly those in spatial information, distort the experience of time differently during the encoding and retrieval phases of memory.

Structuring memory through inference-based event segmentation

Although the stream of information we encounter is continuous, our experiences tend to be discretized into meaningful clusters, altering how we represent our past. Event segmentation theory proposes that clustering ongoing experience in this way is adaptive in that it promotes efficient online processing as well as later reconstruction of relevant information. A growing literature supports this theory by demonstrating its important behavioral consequences. Yet the exact mechanisms of segmentation remain elusive. Here, we provide a brief overview of how event segmentation influences ongoing processing, subsequent memory retrieval, and decision making as well as some proposed underlying mechanisms. We then explore how beliefs, or inferences, about what generates our experience may be the foundation of event cognition. In this inference‐based framework, experiences are grouped together according to what is inferred to have generated them. Segmentation then occurs when the inference changes, creating an event boundary. This offers an alternative to dominant theories of event segmentation, allowing boundaries to occur independent of perceptual change and even when transitions are predictable. We describe how this framework can reconcile seemingly contradictory empirical findings (e.g., memory can be biased toward both extreme episodes and the average of episodes). Finally, we discuss open questions regarding how time is incorporated into the inference process.

Behavioral, physiological, and neural signatures of surprise during naturalistic sports viewing

SummarySurprise signals a discrepancy between past and current beliefs. It is theorized to be linked to affective experiences, the creation of particularly resilient memories, and segmentation of the flow of experience into discrete perceived events. However, the ability to precisely measure naturalistic surprise has remained elusive. We used advanced basketball analytics to derive a quantitative measure of surprise and characterized its behavioral, physiological, and neural correlates in human subjects observing basketball games. We found that surprise was associated with segmentation of ongoing experiences, as reflected by subjectively perceived event boundaries and shifts in neocortical patterns underlying belief states. Interestingly, these effects differed by whether surprising moments contradicted or bolstered current predominant beliefs. Surprise also positively correlated with pupil dilation, activation in subcortical regions associated with dopamine, game enjoyment, and long-term memory. These investigations support key predictions from event segmentation theory and extend theoretical conceptualizations of surprise to real-world contexts.

Event Segmentation Deficits in ADHD

Event segmentation is the automatic cognitive process of chunking ongoing information into meaningful events. Event segmentation theory (EST) proposes that event segmentation is a grouping process fundamental to normal, everyday perceptual processing, taking a central role in attention and action control. The neurocognitive deficits observed among individuals with ADHD overlap those involved in event segmentation, but to date no research has examined event segmentation in the context of ADHD. Objective: The goal of this study was to document the event segmentation deficits of individuals with ADHD. Method: Seventy-five undergraduates with ADHD and seventy-nine without ADHD performed an event segmentation task. Results: Results revealed that undergraduates with ADHD identify significantly more large events. Conclusion: These findingssuggest explicit disturbances in the event model and updating system among those with ADHD. Future research directions include further elucidating these deficits with more varied stimuli and establishing associations with functional impairments.

Dynamic Prediction During Perception of Everyday Events

The ability to predict what is going to happen in the near future is integral for daily functioning. Previous research suggests that predictability varies over time, with increases in prediction error at those moments that people perceive as boundaries between meaningful events. These moments also tend to be points of rapid change in the environment. Eye tracking provides a method for continuous measurement of prediction as participants watch a movie of an actor performing a series of actions. In two studies, we used eye tracking to study the time course of prediction around event boundaries. In both studies, viewers looked at objects that were about to be touched by the actor shortly before the objects were contacted, demonstrating predictive looking. However, this behavior was modulated by event boundaries: looks to to-be-contacted objects near event boundaries were less likely to be early and more likely to be late, compared to looks to objects contacted within events. This result is consistent with theories proposing that event segmentation results from transient increases in prediction error.Significance StatementThe ability to predict what will happen in the near future is integral for adaptive functioning, and although there has been extensive research on predictive processing, the dynamics of prediction at the second by second level during the perception of naturalistic activity has never been explored. The current studies therefore describe results from a novel task, the Predictive Looking at Action Task (PLAT) that can be used to investigate the dynamics of predictive processing. Demonstrating the utility of this task to investigate predictive processing, this task was applied to study the predictions made by Event Segmentation Theory, which suggests that people experience event boundaries at times of change and unpredictability in the environment. The results of these studies are of interest to communities investigating the dynamic comprehension and segmentation of naturalistic events and to communities studying visual perception of naturalistic activity.

The influence of everyday events on prospective timing “in the moment”

We conducted two experiments to investigate how the eventfulness of everyday experiences influences people’s prospective timing ability. Specifically, we investigated whether events contained within movies of everyday activities serve as markers of time, as predicted by Event Segmentation Theory, or whether events pull attention away from the primary timing task, as predicted by the Attentional Gate theory. In the two experiments reported here, we asked participants to reproduce a previously learned 30 second target duration while watching a movie that contained eventful and uneventful intervals. In Experiment 2, reproduction also occurred during “blank movies” while watching a fixation. In both experiments, participants made shorter and more variable reproductions while simultaneously watching eventful as compared to uneventful movie intervals. Moreover, in Experiment 2, the longest reproductions were produced when participants had to watch the blank movies, which contained no events. These results support Event Segmentation Theory and demonstrate that the elapsing events during prospective temporal reproduction appear to serve as markers of temporal duration rather than distracting from the timing task.